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2014 King's Cup Commentary: Round 16

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Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Final Round 1, Final Round 2.

Round 16 Auto-Commentary

Panupol Sujjayakorn (THA) stays in the lead now for 8 rounds, 13.5-2.5 +1476. Nigel Richards (NZL) is 0.5 games behind at 13-3 +1626, on a 3-game winning streak, remaining steady at #2 for 8 rounds. Odette Carmina Rio (PHL) is 1.5 games behind the leader at 12-4 +1052, on a 4-game winning streak, #3 rising from #4.

High Win: Michael Tang (SGP) 599-250 vs. Peter Shaw (AUS). Low Win: Marlon Prudencio (PHL) 374-298 vs. Tony Sim (SGP). High Loss: Jin Chor Tan (MYS) 443-491 vs. Ken Smith (USA). Low Loss: Peter Shaw (AUS) 250-599 vs. Michael Tang (SGP).

Last round of the day. I spend a little time working on TSH software development, to save time later on in the event. You can now specify multiple exclusivity for prizes: if you finish in the top three overall at this event, you cannot win a Senior's prize, or the Team Unity roto, or any of the other prizes; you can however win any combination of those other prizes if you don't finish in the top three. That's calculated automatically, which will help things run a bit more smoothly on Sunday, when I'll be on a different floor supervising the finals while slow players finish their games.

After this game, all players are invited to a reception at a restaurant called Kelly by Audrey, upstairs on the fourth floor. There will be entertainment, and the traditional one-round tournament where a cup is contested by the international and Thai sides.

No one went undefeated today, so the Super Bonus prize goes unclaimed again. Panupol Sujjayakorn (THA) and Nigel Richards (NZL) had 7-1 days to advance by one place each in the standings.

Chollapat Itthi-aree (THA) was 6-2 +681 for the day, the best of the seven 6-2s. His record brought him from 46th place at the start of the day to 16th. Every player won at least two games today, up from one on Thursday.

Moving the reception from Wednesday evening to Friday evening this year let more players participate, including the Sudoku players whose event started this morning. And holding it at a restaurant in the same complex as the event made it a lot easier for us to get there quickly after our last game ended.

There was a delicious buffet (see photos from this round for a selection of food), tableside entertainment by a roving magician (I watched him perform a clever little card trick with Sanmi Odelana (NGA)), karaoke, and of course the annual traditional one-round cup match. The Thai side trounced us this year, winning 11 games to the International side's 6. Kristen and I were happy to play, but unfortunately contributed to the 11 rather than to the 6. I think I could have beaten Chollapat Itthi-aree (THA) even with his drawing both blanks, had I known and played LOWVELDS (185) through the V rather than VOWEL; but I'd have to quit running tournaments for a while to develop that depth of word knowledge. Kristen fared better, losing a close endgame to Thitipol Barameemuang (THA) by only 5 points.